TESL reporter 331 2000 ppap 23 31 23

teaching reading comprehension inenglish through vocabulary Ademonstration of some strategieswale adegbiteadegbileObaobafemifernifernl awolowo university nigeria

introduction

the effective teaching of reading comprehension to children requires the develop-

ment of certain skills vizviz perceptive cognitive and linguistic skills these skills can

be focused on severally during teaching or otherwise they can be integrated currentthinking inin teaching reading comprehension however would seem to favour the latter

in viewview of the maximum input benefit which pupils can derive from it

the symbiotic relationship between reading comprehension and vocabulary devel-

opment has been long recognized personke 1982 dudley 1986 abe 1987 whilewords are regarded as tools for comprehending texts it is equally clear that readingwith comprehension also assists inm developing ones vocabulary day & bamford1998 huckin haynes & coady 1993 krashen 1989 says

although we suspect that there is still a valuable role for some explic-it vocabulary building activities we believe it isis reasonable to assumethat a great deal of vocabulary like syntax and morphology can beacquired through comprehensible input especially when the oralinput isis augmented by reading p 28

in this paper we shall discuss some methods of teaching reading comprehension to

senior secondary school pupils through the process of learning and mastering ofenglish words the demonstration isis expected to

i make classroom teachers aware of some effective methods of teaching read-

ing comprehension

ii suggest to teachers some effective methods of helping pupils develop their

vocabulary through reading

although the above objectives form the focus the discussion of them takes placewithin the wider framework of integrated language teaching howe & tomontomori 1980

24 TESL reporter

developing pupils reading comprehension skills in english

two major concepts are central to our discussion in this study first is that of inte-

grated language teaching or whole language approach this approach goodman &

goodman 1981 onukogu & arua 1997 emphasizes two major procedures which

apply to this study first is the integration of skills procedure which decries the atom-

istic presentation of language skills in the classroom in presenting reading compre-

hension in this paper relevant aspects of the four basic skills of listening speaking

reading and writing are stimulated towards a whole learning process

the second concept is that of the interactive processing model carrell devine &

eskey 1988 paran 1997 applies to this study in three respects first it ensures that

the learner interacts with a text not only by recognizing words and decoding its content

but also by constructing the meaning ie predicting confirming evaluating and cre-

ating messages out of the text content by doing this both the top down and bot

tom up procedures are utilized to integrate the higher and lower levels of processing

comprehension second it ensures learner teacher and leamer learnerleamer interaction in the

classroom in preference to the teacher centered or learner centered presentation it is

especially very important that learners interact in pairs and in groups when lessons take

place in large classes coleman 1987 lastly the interactive processing model ensures

that pupils are encouraged to relate the interpretation of text to the culture and environ-

ment in which reading takes place

undoubtedly the teacher provides an anchor for the comprehension lesson but the

learners should be constantly busy as the teacher sets various tasks for them with little

intervention from himherhigherhim her

some methods of teaching reading comprehensionthrough vocabulary

several methods have been utilized over the years for teaching and testing reading

comprehension in the classroom these include the traditional intensive reading ques

tion answer methods and gap filling methods such as the clozealoze test and c test in more

recent times several other methods deriving from insights into language studies have

been introduced for teaching effectiveness such include especially the prediction spi

der graph storytellingstory telling and retelling and creative activity methods which we have

found useful in the classroom our presentation later in this study is a demonstration of

how these methods might be utilized in the classroom

to put it briefly the prediction method enhances the teaching of reading compre-

hension by ensuring that learners process texts through interactive guessing and making

adegbiteadegbile reading comprehension 25

of hypotheses research inin schema theory says efficient reading isis an interactiveprocess involving the activation of prior knowledge both before and during decoding

the spider graph method isis a test of word association inin vocabulary developmentmeara 1983 nation 1991 rather than test individual words the method connects

words together into an association network based on semantic relationships synonyms

antonymsantonymyantonyms collocations etc among them in teaching reading comprehension an

establishment of relationship among key words inin a text is one way by which learners

can interact meaningfully with the text

the method of retelling stories has been known to help inin comprehension glazer1993 opineskopines that as learners retell the story they have read or listened to the teacher

can determine how well they understand texts in retelling storiesstones pupils have the

opportunity to share their experiences with others while they strive to remember whatthey have read or heard jegede 1997 inin her discussion of text comprehension pre-

sents different guidelines and procedures for encouraging pupils to retell stories

lastly variousvarious forms of creative activities can take place during or after reading

comprehension pictures can be drawn to represent events or characters in a text A

short piece of drama can be composed from a story and this can be acted out in class or

during a period for social or literacy activities in addition the key words of a text may

provide the topic for new stonesstories to be told or written the integration of creative activ-

ities into the reading comprehension lesson seems to provide the greatest avenue for

demonstration of integrative teaching

the reading material and classroom setting

the material for the comprehension lessons presented inin this study consists of fourshort storiesstones A B C and D see appendix provided by price 1997 p 38 the four

passages located here are found appropriate for two one hour lessons of reading com-

prehension for forty seniorsenior secondary school I11 pupils in nigeria

the pupils generally have had six years of primary education and are inin their fourth

year inin the secondary school although the pupils have been exposed to english lessons

right from their first day inin primary school and also learnt other subjects through the

medium of english from the upper primary class their level of mastery of the language

cannot be judged higher than that of lower primarypnmary school native english children

nonetheless the learners have had enough exposure inin the language to enable them to

participate inin a reading lesson if well motivated

the teacher this writer isis a participant inin an extramural evening coaching class

organized by some university teachers for their children the learners to augment the

normal school lessons of the children when it became clear at one point that the

26 TESL reporter

schools were not doing enough to educate children and that the standards of education

were falling parents resorted to sending their children to organized evening coaching

classes while some who could afford it employed teachers to specially coach their chil-

dren at home

the classroom is spacious enough to accommodate forty or more pupils even

though the seats and tables are fixed there is enough space to allow improvisations of

seating arrangements for group work however the greatest challenge before the

teacher isis the need to constantly search for materials and also improvise them As it

were apart from the recommended class text pupils have no other text that is common

when pupils find reading materials in the class text boring varied materials from other

sources stimulate them and thus make the lessons more exciting

presentation of reading comprehension lessons

lesson 1 60 mins

prediction 10 mins

the teacher greets the class and introduces the topic of the lesson the classroom

interaction continues thus

teacher pupils I1 read a number of related stories from a book yesterday the title of

the book is street wise teacher writes title on the board I1 want you

all to guess what the content of the stories could be what words of objects

and activities can you likely connect with street

pupils following bids and nominations with some occasional prompting

houses road people animals traffic vehicles bicycle shops trees driving

walking riding noise

teacher what about wise

pupils careful careless sensible warning rules following regulations etc

teacher how can we be wise in the street

pupils avoid accident beware of thieves be cautious of strangers make new

friends be businesslike observe traffic regulations avoid sluggishness

walkdrivewalk drive carefully dont be drunk

teacher now let us read some of the stories in the book on street wise to find out

storystorn reading sharing and retelling 50 minsmins

the forty pupils are divided into eight groups of five pupils each the stories A B

C and D are shared among the groups so that two different groups have a similar story

adegbiteadegbile reading Comprecomprehensionhensionbension 27

to look at inin their respective discussions A story is read and discussed in each group

following two instructions

1 each group should point out the mistakes that the tourists made in each situation

2 the group should give advice to the tourists to avoid the mistakes above

the whole class now comes together as a representative of each group retellsrebells her

group story to the class four groups retell their stories the other group representatives

only supply missing links to the stories they share with the previous groups the groupscome up the the following edited responses to the instructions given to them

text A

the girlfriend did not take good care of her bag she should have held the bag

more tightly in her arms she should beware of thieves in the street sheshould report the incident to the police

text B

the tourist unwittingly showed the location of her wallet to the thief she was

credulous the tourist should keep her wallet securely next time she shouldbe more critical of other peoples comments

text C

the tourist was gullible to have totally trusted a stranger the tourist was

sedated through the coffee heshebeshe drank sheheshahe should not have taken a drink

from a stranger sheheshahe should report the stranger and describe him to the

police

text D

the tourists were taken in by the good dressing of the locals they were also

not cautious enough in the information they gave to strangers tourists should

not judge peoples behaviour by their dressing they must also watch their

speech

after the classroom discussion pupils go back to their groups where they exchange

stories with other groups at the end of the lesson each group is expected to have

read three or four of the stories

lesson 2 60 mins

spider graph 15 mins

the pupils are told that a text is made up of words which are connected in a relat-ed field for meaning A knowledge of the relationship between words in a text enhances

28 TESL reporter

coherence and makes the text more understandable to the reader pupils are asked to

pick one of the stonesstories then working inin pairs they should try to relate as many key

words inin the text together

the following graph prepared by a pair of pupils on messages has the greatest den-

sity of words

carefully

watched eckeddecked

pocket

believe found walletmoney

relievedieveddeved sstolestoieoleoie rob

stop shout

creative activity 45 minsnunshuns

following the teachers instruction the pupils voluntarily divided into three inter-

est groups to engage themselves inin different creative activities each group was told to

pick some four or five key words from any of the texts being studied and create a story

drama sketch or draw a picture

the picture group presented inin five minutes a drawing which contained a motor

cycle the ridernderader a female passenger sitting on the ground holding a damaged shoe inin her

hand and two other people standing by her the presenter claimed inin his explanation of

the scene that the heel of the passengers shoe had mistakenly slipped into the spoke of

the motorcycle and the spoke had twisted the shoe out of her leg the passengers shout

had caused the rider to stop and drawn the attention of some passersbypassers by the shoe had

been badly damaged while the passenger luckily had a minorminor sprain of her ankle thepresenter explained that objects inin the picture were drawn separately by different mem-

bers of the group and later pasted to create a scene earlier agreed upon by members

adegbiteadegbile reading comprehension 29

the drama group inin ten minutes presented a play inin which a sensuous man was

robbed by a lady the man had met the beautiful lady at a restaurant where he had

stopped over for relaxation after work after a friendly exchange the lady agreed to fol-

low him home she offered to prepare a meal which he joyfully ate after a seemingly

exciting meal he fell asleep six hours later he woke up and found that his purse and

wrist watch were missing

homework

after the presentations the teacher gave the pupils an essay assignment to writefrom home the topic was the day I1 lost my pocket money to thieves on my way

to school

conclusion

this paper has presented some strategies whereby the vocabulary is used as a

resource for reading comprehension inin english utilizing the principles of integrative

language teaching and interactive processing the study demonstrates the teaching ofreading comprehension through the methods of predicting spider graph story retellingand creative activity in particular the study has been stimulated by the location and use

of short interesting and sensible texts collected from a journal

the active participation of pupils and their creative output during the lesson encour-

age the teacher and testify that effective teaching has taken place the recipe has ofcourse been i1 suitable reading materials 11 an experienced teacher and iliilliiiin appro-

priate teaching methods

note I1 wish to thank the british council nigeria whose sponsorship of my attendance at theinternational seminar on lexical approaches to language teaching in 1997 provided the impe-tus for this study

referencesabe E A 1984 A study of the relationship between reading comprehension and

word identification abilities among secondary school students inin kadunakadina state ofnigeria journal of english studies 71 20 25

carrell P devine J & eskey D eds 1988 interactive approaches to secondlanguage reading cambridge cambridge university press

coleman H 1987 little tasks make large return task based language learning ininlarge groups in D murphy and C candlin eds language learning tasks appp121 145 lancaster practical papers in english language education & prentice hall

day R & bamford J 1998 extensive reading inin the second languageclassroom cambridge cambridge university press

30 TESL reporter

dudley G A 1986 rapid reading the high speed way to increase your

learning power wellingbourWellingbour nothamptonnorthamptonNothampton thorsonsThorsons

glazer S M 1993 reading comprehension new york scholastic addisonwesley

goodman K S & goodman Y M 1981 A whole language comprehensionreading program division of language reading and culture college ofeducation university of arizona

howe D H & tomori S H 0 1980 integrated english london oxforduniversity press

huckin R haynes M & coady J 1993 second language reading andvocabulary learning new jersey ablexablee publishing corporation

jegede T 1997 comprehension of texts in CE onukaogu A E arua and 0 B

jejegedeede eds teaching reading in nigeria A guidebook to theory and practiceappp 104 140 ileflelleliennenhe ife nigeria TAWL

krashen S D 1989 we acquire vocabulary and spelling by reading additionalevidence for the input hypothesis modern language journal 73 440 64

meara P 1983 vocabulary in A second language 3 vols london CILT

nation 1I S P 1991 vocabularyVocabulaebulanbuian teaching and learning new york prentice hall

onukaogu C E & aruaarliaarllaarula A E 1997 towards a better understanding of readingby the nigerian primary school teacher in C E onukaogu A E arua and 0 B

jejegedeC ede eds teaching reading in nigeria appp 1 29 ile ife nigeria TAWL

paranparanaA 1997 bottom up and top down processing english teaching professionalissue 3 april

personke C 1982 the conceptual nature of vocabulary development literacy andreading in nigeria 1I1 162 179

about the authorwale adegbiteadegbile is a senior lecturer in the english department of the obafemi

awoowoavolooAvoavalooloo Univeruniversitysim lleilelier 4ife nigeria his areas of speciali7ationspecialisationspecialization are textdiscoursetext discourse

analysis language in education and pragmatics he has published in the journal of

english as a second language african languagesZ and cultures and TEXT

adegbiteadegbile reading comprehension 31

appendix

A the ocean looked fantastic and the B we were walking along in the city

locals and tourists were enjoying them-

selves

centre enjoying the sights I1 kept my

walking up and down the road wallet inin my inside jacket pocket

next to the beach people were cycling suddenly a man ran up to us he was

or riding small motorcycles along the shouting sir madam stop youvebeach road my girlfriend was carry-

ing

been robbed of course I1 immediate-

lyher bag over her shoulder I1 heard put my hand inside my jacket to

the noise of a motorcycle engine close check my wallet I1 was relieved to find

behind us suddenly my girlfriend that it was still there and so was my

started shouting and I1 saw the motor money back at the hotel I1 couldntcycle speeding off up the street A pas-

senger

believe it when I1 found that my wallet

on the bike was holding a knife was gone the helpful man had

and my girlfriends bag watched me very carefully he saw

exactly where I1 kept my wallet when I1

checked my jacket pocket later he

stole my money

C I1 was walking down to the beach D we were in a bar when two well

when a stranger came up to me and dressed locals introduced themselves

tried to shake my hand dont you when I1 told them that I1 was from

remember me my friendfriend9frienda9 he said I1 london they were really excited you

didnt recogniserecognize his face at all 1I saw are from london what a coincidence

you at the airport the other day I1 work my sister isis going to london next

there at passport control how are you week to be a nurse in a big hospital

enjoying our beautiful countrycountry99 I1 but she is worried about travellingvellingtra to a

couldnt remember him but I1 was too strange country could you come back

embarrassed to tell him he was so to my house and talk to her shefriendly he even offered to take me to would be so grateful and my house is

his uncles seafood restaurant we close to here they were so polite that

went there for dinner the seafood was it seemed rude for us to refuse we left

great but the coffee did taste a little the bar and started walking to the

strange six hours later I1 woke up house ten minutes later one of ourmy money was gone and I1 didnt know new friends pulled a knife out of his

where I1 was my friend had even taken pocket give us all your money he

my watch and shoes said we never met his sister